Description
“The Gas has its secrets,” wrote G.A. Sala in 1854, “, and I happen to know them” (45). Sala, writing in Dickens’ journal Household Words found in urban gas lamps “a voice” that speaks “actively, to men and women of what is, and of what is done and suffered by night and by day; and though it often crieth like Wisdom in the streets and no man regardeth it, there are, and shall be some to listen” (45). Gas, can thus be read as a gothic entity containing, as Sala goes on to describe “mighty secrets, dread secrets, dead secrets”, while also being the proud work of “English engineering” (45). Similarly, coal contains its own gothic qualities. In Great Expectations, young Pip sees Magwitch rising from the coals of the fire. In Hard Times, “smoke-serpents” rise from Coketown’s coal-powered factories to trail along the ground as smog which, in the famous opening of Bleak House combines with “looming” gas lights to great gothic effect.This paper explores the gothic tropes used in mid-Victorian journalism and fiction to understand the new environmental experiences afforded by the burning of fossil fuels. While both gas and coal were hallmarks of a new industrial age, anxieties about changes in such fundamentals as day and night, hot and cold, and even the healthiness of the air, made coal and gas fertile ground for a new gothic imaginary.
| Period | 8 Jul 2026 |
|---|---|
| Event title | The 18th Annual Conference of the Victorian Popular Fiction Association: "The Victorians and Their Publics" |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Liverpool, United KingdomShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |